


Fate Has Its Flaws

by dragonsHourglass



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Other, au/scenario in which zelda is born an adventurer and link is born the prince, basically some headcanons about how the whole cycle and roles the characters play work, however they were poorly translated into this writing tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-14
Updated: 2015-11-14
Packaged: 2018-05-01 13:11:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5207090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsHourglass/pseuds/dragonsHourglass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone knows the stories of the Hero of Legends that saved Hyrule from the Great Evil assisted by the kingdom's Princess,  but only a few know that the same thing occurs often over the centuries. However, fate has its flaws, and even if Princess Zelda isn't born the Princess she was meant to be, she doesn't have the spirit to take the place of the Hero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fate Has Its Flaws

**Author's Note:**

> okay im not at all proud of this but its been like a year since i wrote something so i might as well post it lmao

Zelda knows the stories. She knows she is not where she should be.

Her name belongs to a princess, something she is very much not. She is a simple rogue, traveling Hyrule with her Sheikah caretaker, Impa.

Impa says she once served the royal family but was exiled from the castle for speaking her mind about the relations of the prince and the old legends. Zelda thinks it's a ridiculous reason to exile your best warrior. But what does she know? She's not a princess, not in this lifetime.

Impa says it's not a coincidence that the royal family have a son named Link and soon after her exile she finds an abandoned girl in the woods named Zelda. Impa says evil must be drawing near, that the Goddesses are preparing for the inevitable return of darkness.

Impa says Zelda will have to take the place of the Hero of Legends this time around. Zelda is not prepared.

However, she is strong. She can fight; Impa trained her in the way of the Sheikah. 

But she is no brave hero. When she sets off on her adventure she is clad in a ratty, old, blue tunic. It's not green.

She has no companion in the temples and dungeons. She has no advice to be given, no support for when she falls. 

Impa waits at the entrance to each temple, sitting Zelda down and treating her wounds when she emerges, victorious and worn, from the depths of the building.

Each guardian in the temples is harder to fight than the last, and Zelda doesn't know how much she has left. Impa is wearing her to the bone, and as much as she loves the woman, she can't take it anymore.

During a cold, windy night, Zelda braids her hair and steals some of Impa's old Sheikah clothing. 

She runs. 

She stays in the shadows and relaxes.

As Sheik, she is not a savior, not a hero, as Zelda had begun to be known as around Hyrule. As Sheik, she isn't even a woman or a man. It's peaceful.

But evil rises. A young man begins to steal away civilians, Sheik included.

They overhear him communicating with someone about the fate of Hyrule. The presence of this other person causes Sheik to tremble. It is the Evil that continues to haunt Hyrule in its terrible cycle of light and dark.

Sheik kills the young man, and escapes (with the civilians, of course). 

They return to the temples.

With no Impa to guide them anymore, Sheik is left to treat their own wounds and motivate themselves. 

They wonder how Impa is faring with the sudden disappearance of her daughter. 

They try not to think about it.

A village is attacked one day while Sheik is stocking up on red potion and the like. They had heard tell that the ultimate weapon needed to fend the Evil off again was at the end of the next temple.

They fight off the army of monsters and rescue the woman they took captive.

It is Impa.

She is very grateful to this stranger and asks which Sheikah clan they are from.

Sheik breaks down and tears the cloth covering their mouth and nose from their face.

Once again, she is Zelda, crying in the arms of her mother figure.

Impa feels as guilty as she does. She couldn't see how Zelda’s spirit was never meant to be that of a hero.

Impa guides her child to the nearby temple after a day of rest and apologies. 

At the entrance, Zelda asks if she will accompany her. Impa agrees.

The work is done twice as fast with the help of Impa's experienced fighting strategies.

The final door, just beyond the temple’s guardian, leads to a lush, green clearing in a forest the women didn't know they were in. In the center resides a large, stone pedestal, in which a beautiful blade with a violet hilt stands.

Impa encourages Zelda to the sword. Zelda nods, and goes to it. It doesn't move for her. It doesn't glow for her. She falls to her knees. 

Am I not a hero? She cries. Have I not done enough?

Impa frowns in both sympathy and realization. The sword wants the true hero. The reincarnation of the Hero of Legends.

Impa urges Zelda to move quickly. They need to see the prince.

The castle guards are bitter and angry at the sight of Impa, but she convinces them of an emergency concerning the prince’s safety.

Once in, an old mage finds them. He seems unperturbed at Impa's return.

Impa tells him the Hero of Legends is with her--referring to Zelda, of course--, and that she needed to talk to the prince.

The old man understands, and brings to them a boy with soft eyes and a fairy following close behind him. 

Zelda sees his crown and the royal symbols on his garb, and kneels. Impa does the same.

The fairy tells them to get up, and the boy looks apologetic. 

Zelda gives a heartfelt explanation why the Blade of Evil’s Bane wants him and not her. She pleads for him to come with her.

She will do anything to stop the fall of Hyrule.

Against his advisors’ wishes, the prince agrees, and he becomes just Link on their journey.

Since Link cannot speak, Navi, his fairy, accompanies him and interprets his thoughts and musings. 

Impa sits outside the old temple while the hero and the prince venture in to find the sword once more.

Zelda feels at peace in the clearing this time, and admires how the blade shimmers in Link’s hand as he raises it to the sky. The symbol on the blade matches the symbol glowing through Link’s glove.

So the prince is indeed the Hero.

She becomes his guide through the next few temples. They’re on the hunt for the great Evil. 

When they finally find it it is dark. The Evil is the man Zelda feared when she was Sheik. He is Ganondorf, the Demon King from the legends.

Link begins to fight. 

Zelda watches, feeling helpless. She finds the opportunity to assist a few times, but before she can do much damage, Ganondorf pushes her away and creates a barrier surrounding him and Link. The fight continues.

As things begin to look grim for the Hero, Zelda clasps her hands together and begs the Goddesses not to let Hyrule die. 

A light begins to shine between her hands. It expands to the form of a large, golden bow, and lands in her outstretched palms along with a few shining arrows. Light Arrows. Her own powerful weapon to be used alongside the Blade of Evil’s Bane. Her own symbol begins to glow on the back of her hand.

She draws the bow, and shatters Ganondorf’s barrier with the release of her first shot.

Her second shot embeds itself deep in the Evil’s head, and Link uses the opportunity to drive the Master Sword into his heart.

Ganondorf screams, and dies.

Link returns to castle, and insists that Zelda saved Hyrule. She is offered plentiful rewards, but she turns them all down. 

She wishes she could see Link again after she leaves, but otherwise she is content with becoming Sheik again and adventuring with Impa once more. She has the Spirit of the Princess, but it is impossible to play her role in this lifetime. 

They can accept that while they might not be The Hero, they are still a hero. However, the identity of Zelda is put to rest until the next time she is reborn.

Hopefully into her rightful place.

**Author's Note:**

> also sorry if the use of pronouns confused you. 'they' was supposed to refer to sheik, and 'she' was referring to zelda


End file.
